Microsoft isn’t building its own Connected car — but it is launching a new Azure-based Cloud platform for car manufacturers that want to use the cloud to power their own connected-car services. The new Microsoft Connected Vehicle Platform will go live as a public preview later this year. “This is not an in-car operating system or a ‘finished product’,” Microsoft’s EVP for business development Peggy Johnson writes in today’s announcement. “It’s a living, agile platform that starts with the cloud as the foundation and aims to address five core scenarios that our partners have told us are key priorities: predictive maintenance, improved in-car productivity, advanced navigation, customer insights and help building autonomous driving capabilities.” Microsoft also announced that it is partnering with the Renault-Nissan Alliance to bring the new connected- car services to Renault-Nissan’s next-gen connected Microsoft launches a new cloud platform for connected cars